C5 train show steams into Oz, NZ

World’s Busiest Train Stations debuts on Channel 5 tonight

MIPTV: Broadcasters in Australia and New Zealand have picked up a show about train stations around the world from UK-based financier and distributor Silverlining.

World’s Busiest Train Stations is produced by Tim Pritchard Productions and premieres on Channel 5 in the UK tonight. It includes unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to stations around the world, following staff, train drivers, track maintenance crews and transport police.

Destinations include Penn Station and Grand Central Station in New York, Zurich Hauptbahnhof in Switzerland, Flinders Street in Melbourne, Australia, and Howrah Junction in West Bengal, India.

Silverlining, which has picked up global sales rights, has pre-sold the series to both SBS and Foxtel in Australia, and TVNZ in New Zealand.

Bethan Corney, Silverlining’s MD, said the railway programming genre “is buoyant internationally. Demand for high-quality content is high from public service broadcasters, specialist digital channels and SVoDs alike.”

The distributor is taking World’s Busiest Train Stations to MipTV, which starts today. Also on the slate are 90 hours of new unscripted titles, which include C5’s medical documentary series Critical Condition (4×60’, Brinkworth Television) and BBC4’s Victorian Sensations (3×60’, Academy 7). The latter explores the technology, art and culture of the 1890s to celebrate the bicentenary of Queen Victoria’s birth.